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Chapter 13
Dusk
“What do we do now?”Ann asks, and there’s a quiet worry in her voice.
Onyx and I exchange a look, and then I speak. “Getting close to the Void is never a good idea, but normally, the creatures within cannot reach us during the daylight. The fact that they were able to drag you in says they’re getting stronger.”
“What does that mean?”
I try to phrase my answer in the least scary way possible. “You know those shiny shards you found?”
She nods.
“They are pieces from a moonstone.” Just mentioning the name of the precious item makes my stomach turn. Dark memories boil up, and I have to push them away. “The Shadow King has tasked his rot monkeys with planting the shards at night. It takes a great deal of his power to keep his creatures from… shattering in this bright world, even beneath the moonlight, so he is limited by how many he can send and how often he can send them. But if he leaves enough of the moon shards here, to create a ring around the Void, he’ll be able to use his powers to expand his world. And once it expands, everything trapped inside the Void will be consumed by the darkness. He’ll use that power to spread the Void further and further until this entire world is gone.”
She stares, and I’m not quite sure if she’s having trouble picturing what I’m describing, or if she doesn’t want to understand the implications of what I’m saying.
“So why don’t you just remove all the shards?”
Onyx signs. “Is she fucking serious?”
I glare at him, and Phantom answers her. “The shards are nearly invisible. They cast a small light on their own, but during the day, we can’t see it at all. And at night, we search for the shards, but miss many of them. We really have no idea how many the king already has here, nor how much time we have left before he has enough to destroy us all.”
“But the way I saw them glow… was really bright and really obvious.”
“Exactly. For you,” Phantom says, letting the words hang between us.
Her eyes brighten. “So that might be part of why the elder thought I could help? Because they light up for me, so I can actually find them?”
“Yes,” he says.
Onyx signs. “She’s conveniently forgetting that she’s supposed to accept our mate bond to really be able to help us win this war.”
I sign back. “One thing at a time. Now, lay back you idiot. Rest. We don’t know exactly how her healing works, but it’s best to be careful.”
He glares at me from his bedroll and takes a sip of his soup like he’s a child I’m punishing.
“I want to go back home,” Ann says. I open my mouth to argue with her, but she continues. “But after being inside that place… I can see why you don’t want it spreading. I could stay, for a while, and help find the shards.”
“Progress,” Onyx signs to us.
Yeah, it really is. “That would be wonderful.”
Phantom refills all our bowls of soup, and I go with Onyx to watch over him while he bathes, bathing myself at the same time. Then, we swap with Phantom and Ann, giving them a chance to bathe in the river, although neither Onyx nor I can help looking after them in longing.
When we’re all done, and the camp is clean and ready for the next night. We fall asleep. Ann, surprisingly, lays by me, but she doesn’t touch me. She just gives a little moan, turns her back on me, and is asleep within minutes.
Good, we’ll let her sleep now, because in a few hours, there will be work done. Namely, work to see if all the shards will react to Ann the way the other ones had. And then, to see how many of them we can collect before the night falls, and we have to be ready for an all-out war.
With enough shards collected, hopefully the king will be weakened enough that things won’t get too bad.
Hours later, I blink awake as Phantom shakes me. “It’s time.”
He shakes Ann too, although far gentler, and she mutters, “Wake me up, and I’ll put a fork in your eye.”
We both laugh, and Phantom goes to wake Onyx. Hopefully, he’s feeling a little better. Because as much as we’d love for him to spend the rest of the day resting, we just ticked off the Shadow King.
And thatalwayshas consequences. Consequences I remember, far too well.
